HairBrained

Review: This is one of those low budget comedies about a teenage school kid who is a genius. Because of his advanced mind, he enters the college mastermind competitions with the major goal of beating Harvard. With his new found friend, an 41 year old student played by Fraser, and his 3 team mates, they battle through the competition achieving more than expected. I personally didn't find this movie that funny or even slightly interesting. If you don't take the movie that seriously, then it's light hearted fun, but the storyline is quite weak and the acting wasn't anything spectacular. There are a couple of scenes which were quite amusing, but it's not a movie that I will be watching again in a hurry. Disappointing!

Round-Up: As I hadn't heard of this movie before, I wasn't expecting that much. I was shocked to see that Brendan Fraser was in this movie because it seemed more like a college teenage film, but after watching it, I do see the point of his casting. He has definitely had one of the weirdest careers to date, because he has made some really bad movies and then he will casted in a blockbuster. From the Mummy franchise and G.I. Joe, to silly movies like Furry Vegeance and Bedazzled, he really has had a versatile career. I did like him in Crash and Gimme Shelter so he does have his good moments, which are mostly when he is playing serious roles. In this movie he has gone into comedic mode, but personally I didn't find him that funny. 

I recommend this movie to people who are into there teenage movies about a college genius who enters mastermind competitions to try and beat Harvard. 3/10

Overall the movie is fairly enjoyable but it has some turns that just feels very forced and contrived.

And although the cast does a fine job there are some random character developments with some of the smaller roles that seem to happen instantly and completely out of the blue, for instance the popular girl who's personality literally changes from one scene to the next in one moment of the film.

And other random odd ideas, which doesn't seem like they were meant to be funny but just poor script-writing and lack of knowledge of human interaction or potentially something made up on spot while filming.

I won't go into too much details as I don't like to spoil movies but I'm sure if you watch it you'll figure out instances I could be referring to.

Anyways besides that yeah it's fairly entertaining it's just not as good as it could have been.

Oh and despite Brendan Fraser and Alex Wolff's tennis get-up on the poster I don't actually remember them playing tennis once in the movie (and I just watched it) so unless I dozed off a minute and they did that for 20 seconds then there's no tennis in this movie (and that seems unlikely).

Decent watch, probably won't watch again, and can't sincerely recommend.

I like Brendan Fraser well enough and he nailed it in this support role, but Alex Wolff pretty much carries the movie, playing off of everyone else wonderfully.

It is rare to have a collegiate coming of age story, but they managed to cover the idiosyncrasies of a young genius in a new world quite well.

What really breaks me from the movie is the slew of crimes being committed against Eli as he is 13-14 years old.

The other thing is that trivia isn't the most exciting thing, as exampled by the movie. They could have easily done an applied science competition that would have been a bit more compelling.

While I don't regret watching this subtle, slice of life story, there just isn't much to say about it: just very little payoff.

This - "I want to be a funny movie" - almost gets there, but falls short.

It's got good script, plot, photography, settings, characters, but it stumbles along and I think the trouble is with the editing. The entire movie is choppy bits of story and few scenes flow well into the next. I'm at a loss to clearly express my feelings; just as this movie is at a loss to be really good.

Wolff and Fraser make a good team but the experience of Fraser's background in acting make Wolff appear a bit amateurish (but that is understandable by his age) it just was another problem for me to like the end product.

It's fun enough to rent.

"HairBrained" was an adequate movie, it wasn't great, nor was it a waste of time. I must admit that I really had expected a little bit more from it.

The story is about an odd friendship between a young 13 year old genius who is attending college and a somewhat mature and out of place student. Despite their differences, they are kindred souls in a way.

There weren't any laughs in the movie to be found anywhere, and the movie was frightfully predictable. But what made the movie bearable to watch was the performances put on by Brendan Fraser and Alex Wolff as the two out-of-place individuals in a college environment.

I didn't really get the deal with the strange hair on the Eli Pettifog character, it was just too much and it was a nuisance to look at throughout the entire movie.

"HairBrained" is the type of movie that you are most likely to watch once and not bother to pick up to watch a second time, because it just doesn't have enough contents to support more than a single watching.